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back to article Exam papers tagged to deter cheats

An exam board has said it will be using radio frequency identification (RFID) from this summer to increase the security of its GCSE and A-level papers. UK-based Edexcel said it plans to use the electronic tagging system to help prevent exam papers being stolen. Jerry Jarvis, managing director at the firm, said in a statement …

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  1. Cathryn

    Motivation

    'It reckons the system should enable it to detect suspicious submissions from students by comparing their previous results for anomalies where a candidate "performs significantly out of line with expectations".'

    There goes any motivation for studying hard and doing better next time...

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  2. Joel

    Re: Motivation

    Yeah, that's total BS. They might as well ban re-takes... would that not motivate people to study hard and pass first time, because if they don't they're screwed for life?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Response to "Motivation"

    I am just about to take the GCSE's myself, and agree whole heartedly with the exam board. As they say, the mayhem it may well cause could take away from students. In response to the previous comments, I have never met, nor heard of a student going from an E to an A in the time of their mock to real GCSE exam, which is presumably the sort of jump that fits the criteria of "performs significantly out of line with expectations". They can hardly check everyone who knuclkles down and goes up a grade or two!

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't get it.

    This would work if leaks were from kids nicking papers when teachers weren't looking. A quick stock-check with an RFID wand would find the missing papers. I suspect however that the vast majority of leaks are direct from staff themselves armed with a photocopier. So how exactly would that stop leaks again?

    Surely after all the years of schooling they'd have a large enough bank of questions to give each student a unique paper? That would at least reduce the impact of a leak.

    As for "motivation," take a step back and have a look at todays GCSE's. It used to be the case that only the really clever 5% of students got a grade A. Nowadays, they're so pathetically easy, designed in this politically correct world to ensure that every white, black, brown, yellow, immigrant, stupid or clever person gets a pass they've lost their meaning entirely.

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  5. Nicholas Moore

    Response to response

    "I have never met, nor heard of a student going from an E to an A in the time of their mock to real GCSE exam"

    I confess, I only went from a D to an A in my GCSE Science mocks, but still. Whilst that may be because I never took any mocks seriously, I wouldn't want the exam board investigating me because of it.

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  6. Matthew Wilkes

    Response the third

    "I have never met, nor heard of a student going from an E to an A in the time of their mock to real GCSE exam"

    I went from a G to a B in woodwork. The reason being a teacher who didn't like me refusing to mark most of my work. I eventually physically showed the head my work and the teacher quit shortly afterwards.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's hope...

    The cheats don't discover technology like, err, digital cameras.

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  8. Andy Davies

    kiss

    we had a pretty secure system in my day - parcel addressed to headmaster, sent by registered post, complete with blue string and sealing wax.

    AndyD 8-)#

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